WHO chief hopes COVID-19 pandemic will be over in two years

The head of the World Health Organisation said he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be over in two years, Sky News reports.

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 took two years to end, he said.

"Our situation now with more technology, of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading, it can move fast," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"At the same time we have the technology and knowledge to stop it."

More than 22 million people have tested positive for coronavirus globally and nearly 800,000 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Tedros warned that while some countries have managed to drive down transmission of COVID-19, "progress does not mean victory".

He pointed to several countries which are experiencing fresh outbreaks after long periods with little or no cases, such as New Zealand and Vietnam.

South Korea is banning large gatherings, closing beaches, shutting nightspots and churches and removing fans from professional sports in strict new measures announced Saturday as it battles the spread of the coronavirus.

Health Minister Park Neung-hoo announced the steps shortly after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 332 new cases — the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases. The national caseload is now at 17,002, including 309 deaths.

The Czech Republic has recorded its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases.

The Health Ministry said Saturday that there were 506 new cases in the latest 24-hour period. The previous high was 377 cases registered on March 27.

Saturday’s announcement comes a day after neighboring Slovakia also reported a record daily increase of infected people.

The Czech Republic has had 21,551 cases overall, including 411 deaths.

At least 41 schools in Berlin have reported that students or teachers have become infected with the coronavirus not even two weeks after schools reopened in the German capital.

Daily Berliner Zeitung published the numbers Friday and city education authorities confirmed the figures to The Associated Press.

Hundreds of students and teacher are in quarantine, the newspaper reported. Elementary schools, high schools and trade schools are all affected, the paper wrote. There are 825 schools in Berlin.

The reopening of schools and the possible risks of virus clusters building up in educational institutions and then spreading beyond to families and further into society have been a matter of great concern and it’s an issue that’s hotly debated in Germany.

A Spanish region has ordered all brothels to close after recent coronavirus clusters highlighted the difficulties of tracking contagion in these premises.

India has recorded another 24hour jump in coronavirus infections as the disease spreads across the country’s southern states after plateauing in the capital and the financial center of Mumbai. The Health Ministry reported 69,878 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 2,975,701. Globally India has been reporting the biggest daily rise in cases for 18 consecutive days.

New cases of COVID-19 in Australia’s Victoria state continued to decline Saturday with 182 new infections, along with 13 deaths. It was the second day in a row in which the number of new infections has fallen below 200. Only 24 of the latest cases are without a known source, a contrast to the start of August when hundreds could not be traced. Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, and parts of rural Victoria were placed in full lockdown in early August. It's due to continue until 13 September.